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disgratia

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word disgratia

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1252
Ultimate origin
Latin grātia
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin gratia
French grâce
Latin disgratia
From the same root
Latin gratiosus ← gratia
Latin ingratiis ← gratia

Forms

disgrātia f (genitive disgrātiae); first declension[1][2] The spelling disgracia appears in a letter of 1510.[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + grātia (“favour, grace”).[1] Du Cange instead took it from the French word disgrâce,[4] and his continuator compares Italian disgrazia for the sense of illness.[4] Etymonline traces the French word to this Italian noun, meaning “misfortune, deformity”, formed from dis- and grazia (“grace”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Du Cange's earliest dated example is a charter of 1252 of William, King of the Romans, which warns that whoever acts against it will incur the disfavour of the king's highness.[4]

Semantic evolution

Niermeyer gives three medieval senses: disfavour, shame or blemish, and infirmity or disease.[6] Du Cange explains it as offence or misfortune: a chronicler describes the land as sick with the disgratia of so much unbelief before Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, visited it, and a letter of Pope Innocent VI speaks of a kingdom weakened, like a sick man, by what remained of a past misfortune.[4] In the Acts of Saint Paris it is used of illness, of anyone held by a febrilis disgratia, a feverish illness.[4]

Later it is found in the sense of disfavour or resentment in Polish documents of 1479 and 1530,[2] and in a letter of 1510 whose writer does not know whether he stands in someone's grace or disgrace.[3] English borrowed disgrace from French in the 1580s.[5]

Timeline

  • 1252 – A charter of William, King of the Romans, threatens offenders with the king's disfavour.[4]
  • 1479 – A Polish letter uses it for disfavour.[2]
  • 1510 – A letter in the Amerbach correspondence sets gracia against disgracia.[3]
  • 1580s – English takes disgrace from French disgrace, itself from Italian disgrazia.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) Disfavour, displeasure of a superior.[6][4][2][3]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Shame, disgrace, blemish.[6]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Misfortune.[4]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Infirmity, illness.[6][4]

References

  1. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  2. ^ a b c d Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
  3. ^ a b c d Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
Cite this entry

“Disgratia.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/disgratia. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

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